AACE2021-A-1101: Association of Body Mass Index and Serum Vitamin D Level Among Patients Attending a Tertiary Care Hospital in Bangladesh

Abstract

Obesity is one of the most commonly observed health issues all over the world. Vitamin D deficiency is considered to be a pandemic with implications for compromised bone health and other chronic diseases. Vitamin D deficiency has been implicated in several diseases including CV morbidity and mortality, metabolic syndrome and T2DM1. Several clinical and epidemiological studies reported that obese subjects have lower serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH] D) with a negative correlation of vitamin D concentrations with BMI and waist circumference2. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of serum (25[OH] D) concentrations with body mass index of patients attending a tertiary care hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The cross-sectional study was conducted during the period from September 2020 to March 2021 and included total 305 patients attending Hormone and Diabetes clinic of a tertiary care hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh. We included only non-pregnant adult patients of 18 years or older. According to their vitamin D status, they were classified into three groups: group 1 (deficient, vitamin D: <20 ng/ml), group 2 (insufficient, vitamin D: 20–30ng/ml), and group 3(normal, vitamin D :> 30ng/ml). All were subjected to history taking, clinical examination, and assessment of fasting blood samples of serum concentrations of 25-hydroxy vitamin D [Serum 25(OH) D]. According to the Body Mass Index (BMI): weight in kilograms/square of height in meters (kg/m2), the patients were categorized as underweight (≤18.5 kg/ m2), normal weight (BMI: 18.5–22.9 kg/m2), overweight (BMI: 23–24.9 kg/m2) and obese (BMI: ≥25 kg/m2)3. We included 305 subjects aged 31-72 years with a mean age 43.41 ± 8.80(SD) years, and about 66.9% of the participants were women. The mean (± SD) body mass index (kg/m2) was 26.56 ± 3.67 kg/m2 and the mean (± SD) vitamin D level of the participants was 21.58 ± 6.32 ng/ml. Among subjects, 17.0% were overweight and 65.6% were obese. 43% of the participants had vitamin D deficiency (overweight vs. obese: 7.2% vs. 26.6%) and 45.2% had vitamin D insufficiency (overweight vs. obese: 6.9% vs. 30.8%); [p=0.18]. In this study, there was no significant association between vitamin D level and BMI (r = 0.067; p = 0.24). Our study suggests, vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency are more prevalent among obese subjects. But vitamin D status may not be correlated with body mass index (BMI). Future studies are needed to establish the role for Vitamin D supplementation in individuals with high body mass index.